Discussion

Puerto Rican/Dominican Food FINALLY

OK, It took me hiring a contractor to do some exterior painting at my house outside Annapolis to finally get a GOOD rec. on a place in the MD/DC/N. VA area that serves REAL Puerto Rican food. I am not talking about some Caribbean fusion etc...I am talking mofongo relleno, yucca, tostones, arroz con gandules. Food I used to get in Puerto Rico when I lived there and my wife grew up on there. Before we found this place we would only be treated to these signature dishes once or twice a year when we visited my wife's family on the island.

About the place: Manna is short on ombiance and BIG on food. The plates and portions are enough for two. We go there for, and would suggest to a newcomer of REAL Puerto Rican food, the mofongo. This dish is the signature relleno (home cooking/old fashioned) of Puerto Rico and a favorite of teh Dominican Rep. as well. There are variations between the styles from PR to DR, but it is neglegable.

There are quite a few threads about Puerto Rican food on here and I figured I would help some people out. This is not the type of place you find unless you are looking or happen to speak to someone who has been there.

I, too, am half-Puerto Rican and wish there were more places in the DC Metro area that offered PR food. Takoma Park? Hmmm---but I live in LoCo... Thanks for the tip though. If I'm ever in the vicinity for some reason, I would drop in there.

Been meaning to check this out -- I've been craving Puerto Rican since I got back from San Juan a few months ago. Finally had the chance to get there this past weekend. We were the only non-hispanics in there; wasn't too busy but we were early, around 6pm on a Saturday.

They do have a decent amount of dine-in seating. I enjoyed the mofongo (huge portions) -- though the meat that came with it (mine was chicken, BF's was pork) were both fried till they were dark, dark brown -- to a crisp. This was unlike the meat offerings on mofongo I had while in Puerto Rico, but I'm not familiar enough with PR/Dominican food to know if this is how it was intended to be. I didn't really care for this overly cooked texture.

Loved the bed of "salad" (shredded iceberg, chunk tomatoes, beautiful sliced avocados) with tangy lemon dressing served underneath the mofongo. Note - this mofongo is served "dry", without the sofrito/tomato sauce on top. I guess I had it both ways in PR but I tended to prefer the "wet" version.

The side of maduros we ordered was heavenly -- beautifully ripe and fried to a light crisp.

They have horchata as well -- I enjoyed it but it could have been blended a little bit more; the rice was still a tiny bit grainy.

Prices were decent; mofongos $13-15 each (though technically one portion is 2 meals worth for me).